Malik Abu out indefinitely with Grade-2 Sprained MCL

NC State just released information that senior forward Malik Abu suffered a knee injury that will put him on the shelf for a while. Here is the tweet.

Malik Abu has suffered a Grade 2 MCL Sprain. It will not require surgery. We will address his timeline as more information is available.

— NC State Men’s Bball (@PackMensBball) October 26, 2017

This certainly isn’t good news but it could be way worse. For starters, it’s the MCL and not the ACL. Secondly, it’s only a Grade 2 sprain so it won’t need surgery.

What is the MCL? And how long are you out with a sprain?

The MCL is one of the major bands of connective tissue that help stabilize the knee. It runs along the side of the knee, connecting the femur to the tibia. In most cases, the MCL helps protect the knee against any real lateral force.

A sprain of your MCL is when the fibers move past their normal range of motion. This causes some fraying and a Grade 2 could involve some tearing. The fact that they are opting to not do surgery tells us that they likely don’t feel it’s all that bad of an injury. Sometimes with a grade-2 and a lot of time with a grade-3, there is an option for surgery. They are opting to just rehab it, which (based on looking at other athletes who had the same injury) could take anywhere from a month or two (maybe 3) to get back to game shape. Now, understand that every player is different and everyone heals at a different rate, which is why NC State is not giving us a timetable at the moment.

In his absense, you will be seeing a lot of Yurtseven and Lennard Freeman with Darius Hicks seeing more floor time than expected.

We will keep you updated as we learn more.